The diner kings: Two guys run five Vermont diners

Mar. 30, 2012

Diner emperors Bob Campolungo (left) and Bill Maglaris recently opened the Athens Diner (formerly Libby’s Blue Line) in Colchester, adding to their diner empire which includes the Apollo Diner in Milton, Henry’s in Burlington and the Arcadia Diner in South Burlington. / RYAN MERCER, Free Press

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COLCHESTER — Bob Campolungo, co-owner of several local diners and a bakery, set a rule for himself: Only eat one baked good per week from Madeleine’s, his Milton bakery.

With his business partner, Bill Maglaris, Campolungo has a joint rule: Only open one diner per year, at most.

Their pace is intact with the January opening of Athens, a classic diner on the rise in Colchester in the space that had been home to Libby’s Blue Line Diner.

The Athens Diner is an equal opportunity classic: from coffee refills to hot turkey sandwiches to the greeting I received one recent morning. “Are you alone or meeting someone, hon?” a waitress named Reba asked me.

(I don’t remember last time I was called hon, but it was the right word at the right moment.)

Though Maglaris and Campolungo are operating on an informal one-diner-a-year rhythm, this accounting leaves out a lot of restaurant time in the history of the Maglaris family.

Maglaris’ relatives have been in the local restaurant business for more than 100 years: His grandfather was a Greek immigrant who settled in Burlington in 1903. In 1910, Maglaris’ grandfather opened the Arcadia restaurant on Main Street across from City Hall Park, Maglaris said. The Maglaris family continued for many decades to open area restaurants, including an A&W Root Beer on Shelburne Road and the Coffee Pot, a restaurant/bakery that was in Winooski.

“Sometimes I think about how many people we’ve actually fed over the 100 years,” Maglaris said. “If somebody could put a number on that, it’d be pretty neat.”

Here’s a number the diner owners know: They go through 14,000 eggs a weekend.

Maglaris, who grew up in Milton, was in the restaurant business in North Carolina before he returned to Burlington a decade ago to keep the family restaurants roots alive and growing. He owns Henry’s Diner in Burlington (2002) and Arcadia Diner in South Burlington (2008). Maglaris is co-owner with Campolungo of the Apollo Diner in Milton (June 2010); Athena Diner in St. Albans (December 2010); and Athens in Colchester, the most recent acquisition.

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Last fall, the men opened a bakery in Milton, Madeleine’s, across the parking lot from the Apollo. Madeleine’s is a gleaming shop that bakes desserts for the diners and sells donuts, pastries, cakes and pies from its retail shop. Erika LeBlanc, 40, runs the place and says in 20 years of baking, she couldn’t be happier.

She jokes that she works in her pajamas — actually chef’s pants decorated with kitchen utensils — and sneaks in her meal at the neighboring Apollo: a hamburger on a bun she bakes.

Her employee, Ally Gilbert, 18, gave the banana cream pie a thumbs up — actually, a fingers-up: “I put my fingers in it (the filling) and it’s delicious,” she said.

Across the way, Joy LeBlanc (unrelated to the baker) was eating breakfast-for-lunch at the Apollo: a spinach and cheddar omelet with home fries and an English muffin. LeBlanc, 49, grew up in the Old North End and lives in Isle La Motte.

“It’s nice to see they’re back,” LeBlanc said. “Diners are cool. I think they’re cool ’cause it kind of throws you back to simpler times.”

This is the kind of atmosphere Maglaris and Campolungo are hoping to create at their restaurants, along with a consistent product and customers who feel like they’re “guests in our home,” Maglaris said.

“We’re always going to be ever-present, places to go that don’t change,” Maglaris said. “We’re for people who remember diners and young people who want to experience something nostalgic. We’re here for the comfort food and the comfort of the environment.”

Campolungo grew up in Albany, N.Y., before moving to Colchester when he was 11. He remembers the Sunday morning ritual of church with his father, followed by a diner breakfast, where he ate scrambled eggs with grape jelly.

“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and I know what’s required of it,” he explained. “If I’m going to put in that much effort and time, it only makes sense to have a stake.”

Maglaris said he recruited Campolungo because he saw an honest and reliable person who was not afraid to work, and who know what was involved in restaurant management.

“Money is not a factor when you get into this,” Maglaris said. “It’s just such a physical and mental drain.” They described it as a “constant challenge.”

The men employ 121 people, and say the big challenge is finding cooks who are up to the task. Between the volume of food produced and preparing it to order, the job is intense, they say.

The Greek meals are from Maglaris family recipes; Maglaris has been trying to transpose them from his head to written recipes to assist his cooks and to help assure consistent quality.

This has not been easy, Maglaris said, because he’s been making meals such as souvlaki, gyros and moussaka from experience and feel — from his memory.

The recipes have been well received by the Apollo cooks, who make the spanakopita from the owner’s recipe, Brian LaBrie said.

LaBrie, 31, worked his eighth shift at the Apollo on Wednesday, and one week into his tenure there — Tuesday — he prepared with alacrity a Greek platter that included a well-seasoned, thick-with-spinach spanakopita and two skewers of marinated pork tenderloin, grilled to order. Served with a side of Greek salad and warm pita, the portions were on target.

“I like it,” LaBrie said of cooking at the Apollo. “There’s homemade recipes, it’s fast-paced. The customers are happy, it’s kind of like home-cooking.”

He hopes to stick around. “Yeah,” he said. “As long as they don’t fire me.”

In Burlington’s evolving restaurant world — with its ever-growing emphasis on local foods —– the diner has its place, the owners say.

“It’s almost like a teenager sneaking away to get out for the evening,” Maglaris said. “People go to the yuppie place, but they still want the bacon and eggs and the macaroni and cheese. They won’t tell their friends they eat in a diner, but they have that innate desire.”